COPING WITH NATURAL DISASTERS: THE ROLE OF LOCAL HEALTH PERSONNEL AND THE COMMUNITY

( By A Working Guide (WHO - OMS, 1989) )

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Annex 8. Resource maps

Drawing up maps of the resources available in the event of a disaster is a good way of preventing or alleviating the consequences of such a disaster. Resource maps complement risk maps.

The local health personnel collaborate in preparing them with the community’s technical services and the local authorities. The aim is to determine beforehand the resources that could be used in the event of a disaster and to indicate the places where they can be obtained. Various types of resources are distinguished:


A. Those used to reach victims:



· four-wheel-drive vehicles, boats, lorries, cars, bicycles, other means of transport, petrol stocks,
· emergency lighting equipment, means of signalling to the victims.


B. Those used to extricate the victims:



· spades, picks, ropes, pulleys, buckets, ladders, chain saws, shears, saws, toolboxes, pocket torches, blankets,

· power shovels, earthmoving equipment, cranes.



C. Those needed for giving emergency care:



· general supplies for the health facility,
· emergency health equipment, medicaments,
· ambulances or other means of transport.


D. Those needed for providing temporary shelter:



· buildings considered to be disaster-proof and which can serve as rallying points (schools, public buildings),

· stores of tents, camping equipment, caravans and other structures and materials that can be used to provide shelter,

· the Site chosen for the first temporary shelters,

· shelters for animals.



E. Those needed for survival:



· foodstuffs,
· clothing, boots and other footwear,
· blankets, means of heating,
· means of lighting,
· products for personal hygiene, cleaning and disinfection,
· means of waste disposal,
· simple sanitary engineering equipment.


F. Those needed for transport:



· base point for transport (buses, lorries, cars, three-wheeled vehicles, other means of transport).



G. Those needed for communications:



· centre for coordinating information, with megaphones, dispatch riders, batteries, generating plant, priority telephone lines, other means of communications,

· local radio stations,

· amateur radio operators (‘radio hams’).



H. Those needed for evacuating the population:



· preferred routes,
· ways and means,
· rallying points and sites for temporary shelters.


I. Those needed for the transport and burial of the dead:



· means of transport,
· sheets, stretchers, leather gloves, rubber gloves, boots, disinfectants, quicklime,
· spades, power shovels, earth-moving equipment.


A resource map prepared by the community committee for emergencies

Maps of the resources available in the event of a disaster are discussed at meetings attended by the various senior officials of the public services and local authorities. The meetings are open to other bodies interested (associations, voluntary groups, etc.). A resource map is not a professional cartographic product but merely a graphic summary of what has been agreed. The ideal would be for the maps to be accompanied by one or more leaflets or notices summarizing instructions to the population on what to do if disaster should strike the area.

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